According to most porn star confessionals, deprogrammed XXX performers will eventually renounce their love for the industry that made them famous. Linda Lovelace turns her back on pornography in Ordeal, a pathetic tale of abuse. In Traci Lords' self-serving autobiography, Underneath It All, the girl with the fake ID who nearly sank the porn business in the '80s patches together a flimsy version of her youthful exploits. One might even take into account Ian Gittler's Pornstar, a book written from the perspective of a disillusioned porn photographer. Taken together, the books form a triumvirate of negativity, painting a hackneyed picture of an industry filled with only two types of people: malefactors and their victims.

Enter Christy Canyon's self-published memoir, Lights, Camera, Sex! Canyon, one of the major stars of the '80s, has a different story to tell. Not that hers is a Happy Hooker for XXX film stars — Canyon struggles with the stigmas of her profession, gets a bit too wired on Reagan-era coke, and wrestles off a few sleazebags — but she emerges with an unqualified thumbs-up for her chosen profession.

Although the book begins predictably — with pop-psychological observations about the author's childhood and its possible relevance to her later lifestyle choices — Canyon is a deceptively good writer. Her voice is honest, smart, wry and puckish. Scenes with her father and with Max Baer Jr. (a.k.a. Jethro from The Beverly Hillbillies), are fiercely rendered with an eye for detail and absurdity. Yet Canyon isn't dressed to impress here: she doesn't aspire to intellectual status or best-seller sensationalism. Ultimately, her world seems about as fucked up as any other — no more, no less. It is only her rendering that makes it particularly interesting. — RU Sirius



You say you were "tricked" into making your first film when you were eighteen, yet you don't feel victimized by the porn industry.
At eighteen, I was too dumb to understand what victimization was. But even now, looking back on that day in 1984, I still don't think I was a victim. No gun was pointed at my head. I knew I could leave that porno set, and my dad would file a lawsuit. But I was hell-bent on being independent. And contrary to what the women's libbers of that era wanted to believe, the porn biz has made me so strong. I personally would feel degraded working at McDonalds for minimum wage, but that's just me. So no, I never felt like a victim. In fact, I despise victims. Bellyachers suck. If you don't like what you're doing, leave, change, take matters into your own hands and stop blaming others for your life. I was always in control of my destiny, and when I tired of making films, I quit. When I decided to make them again, I called Vivid and was on a porn set fucking away within a week.

When you describe the second time you quit, it still seemed like you were not disgusted with the industry just having trouble taking the sex seriously.
My head was simply not into making films anymore. I had just enrolled in college; I was stripping on the road, and films were not my bag anymore. That's not to say there won't come a time when it feels right to do it again. But on that particular Vivid set, I just looked at my co-star and thought, "No way, Jose." I didn't quit because I didn't like the business anymore. I just was not into fucking on film for that period of my life.

To what extent will the mainstream world continue to intersect with porn — as in the Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton sex tapes and Janet Jackson's infamous performance?
I don't think the mainstream will ever totally accept the world of porn. People like Pamela Anderson and Paris are not taken seriously to begin with. It's a funny thing how a sex scandal works in the straight world. Hugh Grant and Eddie Murphy survived, but then people like Marv Albert don't. Kathie Lee Gifford's husband didn't fare too well. I think Janet was a total idiot for doing what she did during the Super Bowl. That's the type of thing you get away with on a cable channel, but not a mainstream station with kids watching. She must be desperate for attention. At least porn actors keep it where it belongs.

Is there any sense that there is going to be an Ashcroft crackdown on the mainstream porn industry if Bush gets a second term?
From what I gather from the gossip of the biz, Bush and Ashcroft were heading toward trying to stop the porn biz, but 9/11 changed their course. I think if Bush gets in for a second term, not only will the porn industry get hit hard, but I think the entire universe will suffer. I can't even bring myself to say, "elected to a second term" because he was never elected for his first term.

You were offered a book contract by a mainstream publisher for Lights, Camera, Sex! So why publish it yourself?
I decided to self-publish for a few reasons. First, I knew that whatever advance I got would be it, and I most likely would never see another penny. Plus, I wanted to write my story. The company that offered me a deal wanted to change it all around. I had no illusions I would be competing for the #1 spot with The DaVinci Code.

Many people in the porn biz feel the need to legitimize their talent by getting into mainstream films. Do you have similar aspirations?
Personally, I have never felt a need to prove myself outside of the porn business. And I have no grand ideas of making the move into the legit world of acting. Bless my fans' hearts when they tell me what a great actress I am. I cannot act my way out of a paper bag!

It seems that for at least some of the women who are just getting into the sex industry today, there is no stigma attached.
Man, when I began in porn, it was so undercover and bordering between legal and illegal. We would all meet in parking lots and caravan to the set, which was usually a soundstage. Cut to the '90s, when I returned. The Clinton years were good on the porn business; we were shooting in parks, mansions, restaurants. I notice a huge difference in the girls today. For starters, maybe 5% of the girls then had tit jobs. Now about 5% don't! (I'm in the 5% who don't, by the way.) None of us eighties chicks had cozy contracts. We just worked day by day with no royalties. There was no stripping and "featuring." We did our job, and that was it. Now, videos are a byproduct for many strippers turned actresses. They want to get a bigger name by making films so they can make more money on the road stripping. I kind of like us '80s girls more! We were so innocent.

While you were doing porn, your mother and father wouldn't speak to you. Did that situation get resolved?
I was not speaking to my parents before I got into porn. When they found out I was in it, I think they thought I had finally flipped. They were both going through their own issues. Over a few years my mom and I reconnected after she wrote to me. I was damned if I would break the ice first, as I never thought I did anything wrong. I had to survive and I did, thank you very much.  n°  

To buy Lights, Camera, Sex!, click here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
	RU Sirius was editor-in-chief of Mondo 2000 during its heyday in the early '90s. His most recent book, Countercultures Through the Ages: From Abraham to Acid House will be published by Villard in November 2004.